Frank Meza 2:53:10 at LA Marathon (70 years old) unofficial time (just finished)

Frankly a great race wrote:

tl;dr version: I believe I've found image evidence (and potential video evidence) of someone that matches Frank's clothing being even with the lead pack at the 10KM mat of the 2019 LAM (even though he started after them), potentially to wait in the park and then cross the 10K timing mat at the right time.

Longer version: There appear to be at least three sets of photos taken at Echo Park, where the 10K timing mat is located and a very scenic location of the marathon. The pictures all appear before the timing mat. There are four photos in question and the live video stream of the race in question. Two very close photos, 133835 and 133836, photo 200668 and the most potentially powerful photo for me was photo 452056.

In photos 133835 and 133836, you can see a figure running in the background. I wish we had the video of the spectator on the left. The clothing all seems to match. At first I thought, "Why would Frank be at Echo Park right as the Elite men came through? Shouldn't he be further down the course or back at the 5K mat?" Then I realized he would need to be there to hit the 10K mat, which is at the end of the Echo Park route which can be proven using the live stream posted by LATV, the local TV affiliate. More on that in a second.

133835:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_133835.JPG

133836:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_133836.JPG

In photo 200668, you can see a figure in the background on the right. Again, the clothing description appears to match. A high resolution photo here might prove the identify of this person.

200668:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_200668.JPG

And finally, the most interesting photo that led me to more investigation, 452056. You'll notice the figure in the background on the left, crossing the road of a marathon in clothes that also match, and again running the wrong direction, towards Echo Park and not down the road. If you were to scroll through the photos, you would see that other runner in the background with the black diagonal stripe across her shirt is Ms. Cox. An example reference photo is just a few later at 452060.

452056:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_452056.JPG

Reference photo for Cox:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_452060.JPG

This photo was taken almost immediately after the elite men went through this area. It dawned on me that there might be live stream video footage from the race stream of Frank crossing the road which would mean he was running the first 10k at faster than the winning pace to get to that point (a far stretch from the 2:21 pace that even the crazy person in this thread has claimed he ran since Barno won this race is 2:11 in a very exciting finish - you should also watch it!), and then resting for a while in Echo Park before hitting the 10K mat. Unfortunately, the video footage posted on FB is simply too grainy for me to make anything out of. However, my connection is terrible so maybe one of you can. A request may be needed to be placed with KTLA for the footage (and potential additional footage that wasn't part of the stream). You could probably even tip them off if they want to scoop the story using their own footage... The time in question on the posted live stream is 1:26:00.

I don't want to get this post deleted, so to find the stream just search "2019 LA marathon live stream." The first link is a FB live stream posted on 3/26 and is 5:41:05. The Echo Park bit starts around 1:25:00.

Sorry if someone else has already posted something similar or caught any of these pictures. I've been sitting on them for a while and haven't had time to summarize the findings until tonight or go through the entirety of this thread for a while. I'll check back maybe Monday if there are any follow up questions.

Here is a broad summary photo:

https://i.ibb.co/CtjwYXQ/Summary-Picture.png

In case this is all old news and I've missed it, here are some fun photos I also noticed:

Shh, he's my bandit pacer:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_178031.JPG

I've made it through 10K! I've got all the energy in the world!

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_046190.JPG

You have no idea how long it took me to find these matching arm sleeves, shorts and socks. You should see my what else I'm wearing!

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_010687.JPG

My marathon sandals are acting up:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_106338.JPG

Frank on a bike? wrote:

Picture of Frank on a bike? Just for the heck of it, I picked a race from Derek’s list of Frank’s finishes that I had not seen a lot of analysis on: the 2014 San Francisco Marathon where he had a chip time of 2:59:41. I looked at pictures of runners who had approximately the same clock time. I came across this picture of runner 185, who had a clock time of 3:05:52 compared to Frank’s clock time of 3:04:00. Take a look at the biker in the background. Green socks like Frank wore in that race. Shoes look similar. Hard to tell on the hat. Maybe some folks better at this than me can take a look. Frank’s bib was 20274. The picture is the 7th in the series for runner 185. First link is to the actual picture. Second link is to look at all the race pictures. You can type in bib numbers for runner 185 or Frank.

http://d35l3oybk21k7h.cloudfront.net/photos/photos/6555945_race_0.5948109768047379.original.jpg?1406636962http://rm.gamefacemedia.com/races/340/embed

Meeeeeee wrote:

Frankly a great race wrote:

tl;dr version: I believe I've found image evidence (and potential video evidence) of someone that matches Frank's clothing being even with the lead pack at the 10KM mat of the 2019 LAM (even though he started after them), potentially to wait in the park and then cross the 10K timing mat at the right time.

Longer version: There appear to be at least three sets of photos taken at Echo Park, where the 10K timing mat is located and a very scenic location of the marathon. The pictures all appear before the timing mat. There are four photos in question and the live video stream of the race in question. Two very close photos, 133835 and 133836, photo 200668 and the most potentially powerful photo for me was photo 452056.

In photos 133835 and 133836, you can see a figure running in the background. I wish we had the video of the spectator on the left. The clothing all seems to match. At first I thought, "Why would Frank be at Echo Park right as the Elite men came through? Shouldn't he be further down the course or back at the 5K mat?" Then I realized he would need to be there to hit the 10K mat, which is at the end of the Echo Park route which can be proven using the live stream posted by LATV, the local TV affiliate. More on that in a second.

133835:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_133835.JPG

133836:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_133836.JPG

In photo 200668, you can see a figure in the background on the right. Again, the clothing description appears to match. A high resolution photo here might prove the identify of this person.

200668:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_200668.JPG

And finally, the most interesting photo that led me to more investigation, 452056. You'll notice the figure in the background on the left, crossing the road of a marathon in clothes that also match, and again running the wrong direction, towards Echo Park and not down the road. If you were to scroll through the photos, you would see that other runner in the background with the black diagonal stripe across her shirt is Ms. Cox. An example reference photo is just a few later at 452060.

452056:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_452056.JPG

Reference photo for Cox:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_452060.JPG

This photo was taken almost immediately after the elite men went through this area. It dawned on me that there might be live stream video footage from the race stream of Frank crossing the road which would mean he was running the first 10k at faster than the winning pace to get to that point (a far stretch from the 2:21 pace that even the crazy person in this thread has claimed he ran since Barno won this race is 2:11 in a very exciting finish - you should also watch it!), and then resting for a while in Echo Park before hitting the 10K mat. Unfortunately, the video footage posted on FB is simply too grainy for me to make anything out of. However, my connection is terrible so maybe one of you can. A request may be needed to be placed with KTLA for the footage (and potential additional footage that wasn't part of the stream). You could probably even tip them off if they want to scoop the story using their own footage... The time in question on the posted live stream is 1:26:00.

I don't want to get this post deleted, so to find the stream just search "2019 LA marathon live stream." The first link is a FB live stream posted on 3/26 and is 5:41:05. The Echo Park bit starts around 1:25:00.

Sorry if someone else has already posted something similar or caught any of these pictures. I've been sitting on them for a while and haven't had time to summarize the findings until tonight or go through the entirety of this thread for a while. I'll check back maybe Monday if there are any follow up questions.

Here is a broad summary photo:

https://i.ibb.co/CtjwYXQ/Summary-Picture.png

In case this is all old news and I've missed it, here are some fun photos I also noticed:

Shh, he's my bandit pacer:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_178031.JPG

I've made it through 10K! I've got all the energy in the world!

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_046190.JPG

You have no idea how long it took me to find these matching arm sleeves, shorts and socks. You should see my what else I'm wearing!

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_010687.JPG

My marathon sandals are acting up:

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_106338.JPG

Did anybody get KTLA video to see if Frank shows up in high res video crossing the road into Echo Park a few seconds behind the elite group (even though he also started well after the elite group)?

Frank on a bike? wrote:

Picture of Frank on a bike? Just for the heck of it, I picked a race from Derek’s list of Frank’s finishes that I had not seen a lot of analysis on: the 2014 San Francisco Marathon where he had a chip time of 2:59:41. I looked at pictures of runners who had approximately the same clock time. I came across this picture of runner 185, who had a clock time of 3:05:52 compared to Frank’s clock time of 3:04:00. Take a look at the biker in the background. Green socks like Frank wore in that race. Shoes look similar. Hard to tell on the hat. Maybe some folks better at this than me can take a look. Frank’s bib was 20274. The picture is the 7th in the series for runner 185. First link is to the actual picture. Second link is to look at all the race pictures. You can type in bib numbers for runner 185 or Frank.

http://d35l3oybk21k7h.cloudfront.net/photos/photos/6555945_race_0.5948109768047379.original.jpg?1406636962http://rm.gamefacemedia.com/races/340/embed

deadesq wrote:

The curious programmer/runner wrote:

....

I've created a program that could allow anybody to download a large amount of finisher pics for analysis so that not just us programmers are able to do this. Would anybody be interested in me posting the code and instructions? I can make it very fool proof.

Curious programmer--I have a favor to ask. Is there a way you can look at the 2014 San Francisco photos and find a way to be able to either scrape or view sequentially? They're using some Unix timestamp on the photos that makes it impossible to change one digit and see either the previous or next photo in the series. Example:

6555945_race_0.5948109768047379.display.jpg?1406636962

I recognize the last set of digits starting with 1406 as Unix time, which would convert, in this case, to 07/29/2014 @ 12:29pm (UTC). The date of the race was 7/29/2014. The other digits are still a mystery to me.

Any illumination you can provide will be greatly appreciated.